UCL FACULTY OF LIFE SCIENCES

The UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences carries out research across the whole breadth of the field, and teaches at both undergraduate and graduate level. We very much welcome the opportunity to share our teaching and research with affiliate students, i.e. students registered for a degree programme abroad who wish to study with us for a year or a term. The courses you study at UCL can usually be counted for credit at your home university, for instance under a 'Junior Year Abroad' scheme. Affiliate students are accepted for the full year or for the fall or spring term alone.

Affiliate programmes are available in Linguistics and in Psychology.

Undergraduate courses are taught by lectures and seminars, and affiliate students can choose from a range of courses.

The UCL 'Teaching Hour' is 50 minutes long, beginning at 5 minutes past the hour and finishing at 5 minutes to the hour. You may find that the terminology used to describe your courses at UCL is different from what you are used to at your home university. Below is a breakdown of commonly used words:

Term (often referred to in the U.S as 'semester')
At UCL the academic year is divided into one 12-week and one 11-week teaching term (Autumn and Spring Terms respectively) and a 7-week revision and examination term after the Easter break (Summer Term). The first week of first term is set aside for Induction activities.

Course Units
Course units denote the value and length of each course. Generally a course that runs for one term has a course unit value of 0.5 whereas a course that runs throughout the year has a course unit value of 1.0. You are expected to take 4 units over the year which is roughly equivalent to 32 credits in the U.S. or 60 ECTS. If you are staying for one term only, you are expected to take 2 units, equivalent to 16 credits in the U.S. or 30 ECTS.

Lectures (often referred to in the U.S as 'classes')
Lectures start immediately after Registration Week on Monday 3rd October 2011. Psychology courses typically have 2 or 3 separate one-hour lectures each week for each course, Linguistics courses usually have one lecture of one or two hours per week. The Course Lecturer is the person who delivers the lectures in a given course. The Course Convenor is the academic member of staff who has overall responsibility for organising the course.

Seminars or backup classes (often referred to in the U.S as 'tutorials,' 'sections' or 'recitations')
In addition to attending lectures for each course you must also attend smaller groups called seminars or backup classes which typically meet once per week to discuss ideas arising from the lecture material, discuss tasks set and/or to review written work. Seminars start 1 or 2 weeks after lectures have begun and comprise around 10-15 students. Linguistics courses have a one-hour backup class for each lecture. For the Psychology programme, there is only one seminar group where you discuss work from ALL your courses. There are no seminars attached to a particular class.

Demonstrator  (Psychology affiliate programme only)
This is the teacher who leads each seminar. The demonstrator records attendance, marks and provides feedback on coursework (essays and exercises) and chairs the discussion in the seminars. During each term, for the majority of courses, you are required to complete a minimum of 2 essays per course. (For the Linguistics programme, backup classes are led either by the lecturer of the corresponding course or by a research student).

Affiliate Student Tutor
The Affiliate Student Tutor is the person who registers you and advises you on your choice of courses at the beginning of the year. You can consult this tutor on general academic matters. The Affiliate Student Tutor has overall responsibility for affiliate students and makes final decisions as appropriate. If you experience medical or personal problems or face circumstances which could affect your attendance, coursework or exam performance, you should inform the Affiliate Student Tutor as soon as you feel able. If we are aware of your difficulties we can help or at the very least guide you to sources of further assistance. A medical certificate is required in cases of illness lasting more than one week.

Reading Week
This is a week during each of Term 1 and 2 in which there are no lectures or tutorial classes in Linguistics and Psychology. Students may use this week as an opportunity to read around and research their subject on their own in order to broaden their knowledge of the material covered in each course.

College
When you hear people refer to 'the College' they are normally referring to UCL as a whole.

Examinations and Essays
A range of assessment methods are used, depending on the course. Please refer to the Linguistics and Psychology affiliate programme information for further details.

Grading
UCL grades are unlikely to be calculated on the same scale as that used in students' home universities. Students are sometimes unnecessarily alarmed at the apparently low numerical grades received because of a failure to understand this. Exam percentages will be converted to US grades according to a standard scheme - details can be found in literature circulated by UCL International Office at the beginning of term. Both the UCL percentage and the US grade will appear on the transcript sent to each student's home university.

Honour Code
Students will be trusted to conduct themselves honourably in examinations and in preparing coursework. Particular attention is drawn to the UCL guidelines on plagiarism.

I chose UCL on recommendation from my academic advisor at UWA. At first it was quite stressful trying to get into a different system of teaching, let alone a whole new continent. Now that I’ve found my feet though, I think it will help in making me more independent when it comes to increasing my knowledge in any particular subject I choose. Studying abroad will demonstrate to future employers that I am flexible and can adapt well to new situations.

Andrew Cheah, University of Western Australia.

Please select the links below for further information

• UCL Study Abroad Entry for Linguistics
• UCL Study Abroad Entry for Psychology
• UCL Study Abroad Guide

Please refer to the Linguistics and Psychology affiliate programme information for further details.

To apply as an affiliate student in the UCL Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, please visit the UCL International Office pages (here) for more information. There you can download an application form and find out about application deadlines.